Monday, February 29, 2016

This is leap year which means that there is a 5th Monday this month. Secret Recipe Club is a group of over 100 bloggers broken into 4 subsets. Each subset posts a recipe from their month's assignment on each Monday of the month. I belong to group D and I post every 4th Monday from another blog within group D. On months containing 5 Mondays we have the option of signing up for a special reveal day. These reveal days have a theme and you may be assigned a blogger from another subset.

This month's theme is Leprechauns and Easter Bunnies since most of us are preparing to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and Easter in March. I was absolutely thrilled to be assigned to my dear friend, Amy of Amy's Cooking Adventures. Amy is married to Mike who is the son of our dearest friends. When I decided to start blogging it was Amy who walked me through it and helped me along the way. We did all this by instant messaging and then when she came into town she sat in my basement and helped me set up my recipe index. While following Amy's blog I fell in love with her SRC posts and knew I wanted to join. As soon as I had the required 100 recipes I filled out my request to join and then waited for there to be an opening for me. Yep, there is a waiting list for this club....that is how much fun it is!!

Amy has two adorable sons who are turning into quite the little chefs. She also has a beautiful baby girl who is waiting for her up in Heaven. Amy not only shares recipes, she also shares snippets of her day to day life. When Amy and Mike lost their daughter during pregnancy, she started sharing "Angel Wings Wednesdays" during which she shares her grief and tries to help us understand what it is like for someone to lose a child. That is the kind of girl she is, she noted that she could feel people being uncomfortable and not knowing what to say or do so she shares her ideas of how you can be compassionate and caring to those you know who have gone through this terrible loss. Her bottom line is "if you are speaking and acting with love, the grieving parent will know this and appreciate that you took the time and effort to reach out instead of staying away or saying nothing for fear of saying or doing the wrong thing."

There are tons and tons of recipes on Amy's blog and she also has another blog just for all her cakes called Amy's Confectionery Adventures. I was glad we had a theme otherwise it would take me a month of Sundays to choose a recipe. I read Amy's blog daily so instead of going through all of her recipe files I did a search for Easter and St. Patrick's Day. That narrowed it down to about a hundred recipes!!

This wonderful stew contains not one, but two different types of alcohol to tenderize and infuse flavor, one of which is Guinness, hence the reason Amy dubbed it "Drunken Irish Stew". I adapted Amy's recipe to be made in a slow cooker. This was not my original intent but I had saved this recipe to make for dinner this past Saturday and then we had an emergency in our family that required us to be at the hospital all day. Thinking I would be back at the hospital all day Sunday and this post was due today, when I got home Saturday night I put it together and let it cook through the night so I would have photos for you today. One of the great things about stew is you can make it ahead of time and it is delicious rewarmed and eaten the next day.

A few other adaptations were that I only had 1 lb of stew meat instead of the 1 1/4 lb called for in the original recipe. I didn't have any dried rosemary so I substituted Italian seasoning. I omitted the peas because I didn't have any and I lessened the amount of broth to accommodate the slow cooker.

It turned out delicious and I am happy to have another stew recipe in my repertoire. Thanks Amy!!

Irish Stew

adapted from Amy's Cooking Adventures

2 T. olive oil

1 lb. stew meat

7 cloves of garlic, minced

1 c. dry red wine

1 c. Guinness

3 c. beef stock

3 T. tomato paste

1 1/2 T. sugar

2 T. Worcestershire Sauce

1 T. dried thyme

1 T. dried Italian seasoning

2 bay leaves

2 lbs. red potatoes, halved

3 lg stalks celery, cut into chunks

1 small pkg, baby carrots

1 sweet onion, cut into chunks

salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil over med high heat in a large skillet. Pat dry the meat and season with salt and pepper. Sear on all sides, remove to a plate and set aside. Add the garlic to the pan and cook for a few moments before adding a splash of the wine. Cook and stir, scraping up an brown bits stuck to the pan. Add the remaining wine, beer, stock, tomato paste, sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Cook and stir until slightly reduced.

Place carrots, potatoes, celery and onion in the bottom of a slow cooker. Sprinkle with thyme and Italian seasoning. Add the bay leaf and the beef along with any collected juices. Pour the broth over all and cook on low for 8-10 hrs. Print Recipe

This month, in celebration of Leap Year, Stacy has chosen to do a theme for Muffin Monday. Stacy has chosen for us to use "unusual" ingredients to honor this "unusual" event.

I'm not used to having a theme and it has been a crazy busy month so last week I made up some corn muffins to go with dinner, wrote my post, scheduled my post and then remembered there was a theme. So, you, my lucky readers got an extra muffin post this month.

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.
Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

So then I had to put my thinking cap back on and decide what kind of muffin I could make that would be unusual. I opened the refrigerator and saw half of a bag of baby spinach that needed to be used before it wilted. Spinach Muffins? Why not. I decided to make savory breakfast muffins because I love spinach in my omelets or making spinach benedicts. I pulled out some bacon bits and colby cheese from the fridge along with the spinach, an egg, butter and some buttermilk.

1. Mix together the dry ingredients including the bacon and cheese.

2. Wilt the spinach in the hot butter, add the buttermilk to cool the mixture.

3. Add the spinach mixture and egg to the dry ingredients and stir just until combined.

4. Using an ice cream scoop fill a 6 cup muffin tin that was treated with cooking spray.

It took only a matter of minutes to throw these together and in less than a half hour we had a hot breakfast muffin to take along with us as we began our day.

Spinach, Bacon and Cheese Breakfast Muffins

1 1/2 c. flour

1 t. baking powder

1/4 t. baking soda

pinch of salt

1/2 c. colby cheese, shredded or cheese of choice

3 oz. bacon bits or 3 slices bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled

3 T. butter

5 oz. baby spinach leaves

1/2 c. buttermilk

1 egg. lightly beaten

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cheese and bacon in a med bowl. Place butter and spinach in a large bowl and microwave on high for 1 minute. Stir and microwave for another 30 seconds if butter is not completely melted. Stir in buttermilk to the spinach and butter. Add to dry ingredients stir lightly and then add egg and stir just until combined. Place batter in a prepared 6 cup muffin tin and bake in a preheated 350* oven for 18-20 minutes, until browned and a skewer inserted in the center removes cleanly. Print Recipe

Sunday, February 28, 2016

This week the Sunday Supper folks are sharing pie recipes. Sweet or savory, breakfast, lunch, dinner or dessert. Able to be held in your hands or messy as can be, requiring not only forks but lots of napkins. All kinds of pies! This is thanks to Erica of The Crumby Cupcake who is hosting the party this month.

I have a pie loving family. My children often asked for Birthday Pie instead of Birthday Cake. Amy's favorites are apple and pumpkin. Chuck's favorite is Holy Cow Chocolate Pie. Tingting is partial to pumpkin. My favorites are pumpkin, apple. lemon meringue and blueberry. Frank? Frank loves all pies...his favorite is my apple pie, but he also loves cream pies, chocolate cream, banana cream, pineapple cream, coconut cream. Of course, he wouldn't turn down a peach, cherry, blueberry or strawberry pie either. When I asked him what kind of pie he would like for this event he asked for pineapple. I found this recipe in one of my old issues of Cuisine at Home and decided to make it to share with you. I'm glad I did and I think you will be glad that I did too.

Pineapple Meringue Pie

as found in Cuisine at Home, Issue #56

Crust:

1 c. flour

1/4 c. powdered sugar

pinch of salt

1 stick unsalted butter, cold and cubed

4 oz. cream cheese, cubed

Filling:

1 c. sugar

2/3 c. pineapple juice concentrate, thawed

1/3 c. water

5 egg yolks (reserve whites for meringue)

3 eggs

6 T. unsalted butter

pinch of salt

juice of 1/2 a lime

1 (5 oz) can crushed pineapple, drained

Meringue:

5 egg whites

1/2 t. cream of tartar

2/3 c. sugar

1/2 t. vanilla

Preheat oven to 400*. Spray a 9" glass baking pan with cooking spray.

Place flour, sugar, and salt for crust in food processor and pulse to combine. Add the butter and cream cheese, blend until dough forms a ball. Press flat, wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface into a 12-14" circle. Transfer to pie plate, trim and crimp edges. Place in freezer for 15 minutes. Remove from freezer and blind bake (line with foil filled with beans, rice or pie beads) for 25 minutes. Remove foil and weights and cook 10 minutes longer. When removing crust, reduce oven to 325*.

While crust is baking, whisk all ingredients for filling,except crushed pineapple in a saucepan placed over medium heat. Cook and stir for about 10 minutes until mixture thickens.

Remove crust from oven and pour hot filling mixture through a fine mesh sieve into the hot crust. Sprinkle the crushed pineapple over the filling and stir lightly. Place pie back in oven and bake until filling is just set, 15-20 minutes ( my filling took 30 minutes to set). Remove pie from oven and raise temperature to 425*.

While pie is baking, place the egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat until soft peaks appear then gradually beat in the sugar. Continue beating until glossy with stiff peaks. Add vanilla.

Remove pie from oven. While pie is still piping hot, add the meringue around the sides of the pie, extending past the crust to the pie plate. Place remaining meringue into the center and then spread the meringue from the edges into the center until the whole pie is covered and lifting the spatula occasionally to make peaks. Return pie to hot oven and bake for 5 minutes until golden brown. As you can see from mine I could have removed it 30 seconds sooner so keep an eye on it. Let cool completely before serving. Print Recipe

Join the #SundaySupper conversation on twitter on Sunday! We tweet throughout the day and share recipes from all over the world. Our weekly chat starts at 7:00 pm ET. Follow the #SundaySupper hashtag and remember to include it in your tweets to join in the chat. To get more great Sunday Supper Recipes, visit our website or check out our Pinterest board.
Would you like to join the Sunday Supper Movement? It’s easy. You can sign up by clicking here: Sunday Supper Movement

Friday, February 26, 2016

Even with the extra day, February flew right by me. We have been spending most of our free time at the hospital with Mom Klik. When we aren't at the hospital we are attending meetings, running errands, watching Little Miss and Frank is helping Nicole and Pierre movie today and tomorrow.

I will have Angel Face today until it is time for me to go work the Fish Fry at church from 4-8. Tomorrow morning while Frank is helping with the move, I will go spend some time with Mom, after which I am going to a boot party at my friend, Karen's, with Kirsten and Amy. When we leave the boot party we are swinging by to grab Melody on the way home. She and Tingting will be spending the weekend with us because on Sunday Tingting and I are attending a painting party with a group of family and friends so Grampy and Mel are on their own for dinner.

Frank is officially retired today. Monday he has one last interview for his new job and we should know whether he gets it by the end of the week. Tuesday we are having dinner out with friends in celebration of either his retirement or his new job.....

The rest of the week will be the same as last....except Frank might not be going in to work....or he might be working much longer hours.....we will see.

Whatever happens, we still need to eat so I am sharing the weekly menu with you. Please stop by each day for recipes and photos.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

I almost didn't post this month. I've been busy and I hadn't gotten around to looking up a muffin recipe to make and the end of the month was approaching. We always share our Muffin Monday recipes on the last day of the month. I was making some corn muffins to go along with chili for dinner one night, decided to check my recipe file and was amazed that I had never posted corn muffins before. I clicked off some quick photos and voila....I am here to share Muffin Monday with all my Muffin Minded friends.

I was raised having bread with nearly every dinner. I am sure it was to help fill all of our bellies when Mom was stretching 2 lbs of meat to feed eight hungry mouths, four of which were growing boys. None the less, I don't feel like dinner is complete without bread of some sort. Corn muffins are my go to if I haven't been baking or been to bakery. They take minutes to throw together and bake and they are delicious with soups, stews, pastas, fried chicken and pot roasts. Biscuits come in a close second.

That's why I couldn't believe I hadn't shared the recipe before now. I guess since I make them so often I just assumed that I had. Luckily this oversight is as easily remedied as these muffins are to make.

OOPS!!!!!

When I finished this post and went to share the info on the Muffin Monday page I was reminded that because this is a leap year, Stacy had decided to do a theme muffin. The theme is "unusual ingredients". There is absolutely nothing unusual in these muffins so....... I am sharing them today instead of next Monday when I will be sharing an "unusual" recipe. Of all the things I have lost in life I really, really miss my mind the most!!

Corn Muffins

adapted from Quaker

1 c. corn meal

1 c. flour

2 T. sugar

pinch of salt

4 t. baking powder

1 c. buttermilk

1 egg

1/4 c. canola oil

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add buttermilk, egg and oil. Stir until combined. Scoop into 12 muffin tins that have been treated with cooking spray. Allow to stand while oven preheats to 425*, this allows them to have more of a crown. Bake in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Print Recipe

Monday, February 22, 2016

This month I was given Caleigh's Kitchen as my Secret Recipe Club assignment. SRC is a club of nearly 100 bloggers, broken into 4 groups. Each month you are assigned another blogger from your group and you secretly get to know that person by checking out their blog, postings, social media sites and recipes. On reveal day you all write a post and share a recipe from your assignment's blog and everyone shares the links so that we can see who had who. It is a fun, supportive and loving group and you are welcome to join us. You can learn how by going to this post.

Before I share the recipe I chose let me introduce you to Amber of Caleigh's Kitchen. Amber, her husband and her adorable little daughter live in East Texas. So far east, she says, that they often go to Louisiana for dinner. Amber has a BA in anthropology and began her blog as a way of sharing her recipes with friends who were often requesting them. Why is her blog named Caleigh's Kitchen? You will have to go to her about page to learn that but I will give you a hint....Her daughter is NOT named Caleigh.

Amber has a lot of wonderful recipes and even has a gluten free section if gluten is a problem for you. I was invited to a party and asked to bring a dish to pass so I knew I wanted to make something from Caleigh's Kitchen that I could take with me. I checked out her appetizer section and nearly made these Black Bean and Goat Cheese Empanadas or these Homemade Oreos. But then I came across the perfect recipe. Yep....you know me......the perfect recipe is defined as EASY, PEASY and DELICIOUS.

Amber had these Pizza Rolls filed under Main Dishes but I knew they would make a perfect dish to pass as an appetizer too. Her blog title even calls them easy peasy pizza rolls! How could I not make them? I doubled Amber's recipe. They were a huge hit. I could have tripled it and still not had any left at the end of the party.

How easy are they? Open a package or two of refrigerated pizza dough. Unroll it and hit it a little bit with a rolling pin so it measures approx. 12"x8". Use a pizza cutter to make 24 pieces of dough.

Sprinkle your fillings, I used mini pepperoni and shredded mozzarella, over half of the squares. I didn't bother measuring. I just eyeballed it.

Lay another piece of dough over the filling and press along the edges to seal. You want all of the filling to be contained within the dough.

Pinch it together at the bottom to create a ball as you would when forming dinner rolls. Place them seam side down into a baking pan. I used a 9"x 13" for this doubled recipe.

I slathered them with Tuscan Herb Flavored Olive Oil. Sprinkled them with garlic powder and shredded parmesan cheese. If you don't have flavored oil, use regular and sprinkle with some Italian herbs, if desired.

Bake in a hot (400* oven) for 15-20 minutes and then move pan to cooling rack to allow them to cool enough to be able to eat.

Serve hot with heated marinara or pizza sauce or you can do as I and serve them room temperature with room temperature marinara sauce. DELICIOUS!!

Pizza Rolls

slightly adapted from Caleigh's Kitchen

2 rolls refrigerated pizza dough

1 package miniature pepperoni

shredded Mozzarella cheese

Herb flavored olive oil

garlic powder

shredded Parmesan cheese

Prepared marinara or pizza sauce

Roll out dough to 12" x 8" rectangle. Cut each rectangle into 20 squares with a pizza cutter. Sprinkle half of the squares with Mozzarella cheese and mini pepperoni. Cover with a second square, pressing to seal edges. Form into a roll by pinching the bottom together. Place in a lightly sprayed or oiled 9" x 13" baking pan. Liberally brush with flavored olive oil, sprinkle with the garlic powder and Parmesan cheese. Bake in a preheated 400* oven for 15-20 minutes, until golden brow and no longer doughy. Serve with a side of sauce. Print Recipe

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Welcome to Sunday Supper. Our theme this month is Winter Salads, chosen by Sue from A Palatable Pastime, I think this is a perfect theme. We tend to think of salads as Spring and Summer foods as we enjoy the first early greens that spring up and continue to enjoy them through the growing season. During the height of the season we start attending picnics and pot lucks where salads of all sorts are shared. In the fall we start looking at the colder weather greens, chards, mustard greens, beet greens that we often mix with roasted squash or root vegetables to make a salad. But in the winter....well, at least here in the winter, we often are having casseroles, soups and stews that are chock full of vegetables so we don't really think about salads.

I originally thought of making a main course salad and toyed around with the idea of a lentil salad with flecks of lamb and a yogurt dressing and I may still do that but when I walked into the market the other day there were huge displays of winter fruit. It is citrus season and it all looked so wonderful that I couldn't pass it up. I bought a little bit of everything, grapefruit, oranges, blood oranges. Then I grabbed a bunch of escarole and as I was walking past the herbs I noticed some fresh Michigan mint. I don't know where in Michigan they got it, perhaps a greenhouse? I think it is still early for mint even though we have had a very mild winter.

Citrus Salad

1 bunch escarole, trimmed washed and dried

1 grapefruit, peel and white pith removed, sliced and then quartered

1 orange, peel and pith removed, sliced

2 baby blood oranges, peel and pith removed, sliced

small amount of red onion, thinly sliced

leaves of 2 mint sprigs, coarsely chopped

zest of above orange

juice of 1/2 lemon (about 1 1/2 T.)

2 T. olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Spread escarole onto a platter. Scatter the oranges,grapefruit, onion and mint over the escarole.

Whisk together the orange zest, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Drizzle over the salad and serve. Print Recipe

Join the #SundaySupper conversation on twitter on Sunday! We tweet throughout the day and share recipes from all over the world. Our weekly chat starts at 7:00 pm ET. Follow the #SundaySupper hashtag and remember to include it in your tweets to join in the chat. To get more great Sunday Supper Recipes, visit our website or check out our Pinterest board.
Would you like to join the Sunday Supper Movement? It’s easy. You can sign up by clicking here: Sunday Supper Movement.

Saturday, February 20, 2016

We have traveled through all of France and are now finishing up in the Alsace region. Alsace lies on the west bank of the Rhine and shares a border with Germany. Because of the location Germany and this region of France share many of the same types of wine. Alsace is best known for it's white wines such as Riesling and Gewerztraminer which I chose to showcase today.

Why did I chose to showcase this particular wine?

Because after 4 stores and 45 miles this was the first bottle I found.

So with all the Asian cooking I do you would think that I would pair it with that!

Nope, uhuh....No Asian on the menu this week.

What was on the menu was Fried Chicken served with mashed potatoes, corn and the Baked Lentils that I shared earlier today in the CIC post. It was a great pairing and I enjoyed this wine very much. The next time I am in the area of the store where I purchased it I will be picking up a couple more bottles to pour with our next Asian meal.

This month for Crazy Ingredient Challenge the votes came in for Lentils and Molasses. I had almost forgotten about this challenge but thankfully one of our members, Dawn, of Spatulas on Parade sent out a little reminder.

So I put on my thinking cap. Lentils and Molasses. I guess that is not too odd of a combination. I love lentils but usually serve them up in soup or stew. Bottom line, they are beans. I usually sweeten my baked beans with brown sugar or honey but I know that others sometimes use molasses in their baked beans. I decided to make baked beans out of lentils using the crockpot.

They were easy and they were good. I am not a huge molasses fan and would have preferred them sweetened with brown sugar but they certainly were tasty enough to enjoy with our Fried Chicken Dinner. They were quicker and easier than using pinto beans and just as good but because they cook so quickly you have to watch that they don't start to burn even in a crockpot. These also have the advantage of being vegan friendly.

Crockpot Baked Lentils

1 c. lentils

2 c. vegetable stock

2 T. molasses

1 T. Worcestershire Sauce

3 shakes of hot sauce

2 T. catsup

1 T. yellow mustard

salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker. Cook on low heat for 3-4 hrs., until liquid is absorbed and lentils are tender. Print Recipe

Friday, February 19, 2016

Life is very unpredictable so menus get moved around a lot in this house. My MIL is having some medical problems so the family is all taking turns staying with her while she is being treated. This means that Frank and I have just been passing each other in the hospital room as I come to relieve him or vice versa. Mom is getting better but will probably be going into a rehab center to try to regain her strength. It has been a tough 6 months or so for her.

I was listening to an audible book that got done quickly with all the driving back and forth. It was an audible daily deal and I probably would never have bought it otherwise. It turned out to be very good. I liked the protagonist very much and many of the secondary characters. It is the story of a serial killer that inadvertently left one of his victims alive in the grave. She was recovered and an innocent man convicted of the crimes and placed on death row. It is 17 years later and his time is running out when Tessa, the last known victim, begins working with his attorney to have the conviction overturned. The story swings between present day and the days prior to the abduction and following the recovery. The narrator did a great job and I am giving this book 4 out 5 stars.

Tonight we are taking our friends from church who sang at my Mom's funeral Mass out for dinner as a thank you for all their time and hard work.

Tomorrow night we are going to a birthday/welcome home party for our friend Greg. Wednesday we have a ecumenical Lenten service that our church is hosting, Thursday is choir practice. Friday I am working the Fish Fry at church. In between we will be helping out with Mom Klik as much as we can and I will have my Little Angel Face for a couple of days while her Mama works.

I am taking a couple of dishes to the party for Greg and I have 2 lbs. of burger that I have to use as I removed it from the freezer last week and never go to it. I will be making both Sunday and Tuesday meals tomorrow so that the burger is used.

I am posting the Weekly Menu as I am planning but, of course, it is subject to and probably will change. I will post recipes and photos as time permits.Saturday-Greg's Party
Pizza BitesKielbasa and SauerkrautSunday
Lasagna
Salad
Garlic BreadMeatless Monday
Spinach and Cheese Calzones